


Early Comforts

by kunkles



Series: Still At Beacon [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-20 22:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17631218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunkles/pseuds/kunkles
Summary: Blake gets the flu and a day in Yang's care before the start of a mission





	1. The Flu

Blake tries her absolute hardest to watch the educational video playing on the screen in front of her, barely able to concentrate through the dull pain behind her eyes.. She and her teammates are the only people in this class while they wait for their training mission to be initiated, the village they’re meant to be going to being hard to contact even with CCT at full strength, and they’re sat at the front having nothing to do, just watching videos under supervision from a substitute teacher who pays them little attention. She squeezes her eyes shut and rubs them with the palms of her hands as the ache begins to spread and her stomach starts to churn, her entire body quickly starting a rebellion against her. Finally she drops the headphones she was wearing, looking over at her partner dutifully going through this work that will do little except give her something to do.

“Yang?” She asks quietly, her own voice pounding through her head as if it were an airhorn. She receives no response from her friend, likely her voice not getting through to what she’s listening to with the headphones.

Blake decides that, while Yang’s presence would be comforting, she can get back to the dorm on her own and she can do it while hiding the fact that she’s sick. She doesn’t want to be the reason to get their mission cancelled, especially knowing that everyone else is excited for it. She spins in her chair and tries to subtly grab at her head as if doing so will pull away her headache, slowly standing up in an attempt to keep her unstable stomach stable. Her world goes a little fuzzy as she stands but quickly returns to normal, noticing Yang give her a cursory look as she does so. She sighs in relief to herself, confident she’ll be fine. She takes a single step and the content of her stomach quickly finds its way onto the floor, and her world becomes darkness as she falls unconscious.

 

Blake returns to wakefulness slowly, her head still pounding with a hard dull ache. She opens her eyes slowly but finds the room dark, having seemingly been carried back to the dorm and been out cold for hours until the sun went down. Sitting up to give herself more awareness she spots Weiss fast asleep on her bunk, and the dull light of Ruby’s scroll shining from behind her makeshift curtain. Her entire body hurts as she moves, as if she’d been training all day. Her attempt at getting up for some water ends only in her thumping back down onto her pillow when her strength leaves her. She sighs and looks up at the top bunk, staring at the patterns in the wood on the underside of her partner’s bed for a solid thirty seconds while trying to plan the script for what she wants to say.

“Yang? Are you up there?” She asks in a whisper, her throat dryer than the whole of Vacuo. She only realises she has her bow off when her eyes twitch to the sound of shifting springs above her. A mane of curly yellow hair, muted in the dark light, falls over the edge of the top bunk as Yang looks at her while upside down. She spends a few seconds too long simply staring at the girl, only able to think about how pretty she is and how much she loves her freckles, and how fun it would be to kiss her and-

“So, uh, were you just missin’ me or something?” Yang says, knocking Blake out of her train of thought. She can barely see her partner in the dark, but stands ready to help as always.

“I always miss you, but i need some water pretty badly. Could you…?”

Blake’s face goes a little red as Yang smiles, and nods, and jumps down from her bunk. She lands on her feet with a heavy thud, pulling her shirt back down after it gets bundled up. She uses the light on her scroll to find and grab an empty plastic bottle sat on their shared nightstand before leaving the room. A small pang of sadness shoots through her when she watches Yang walk through the door, knowing she needs the water but also wanting her partner with her right now.

“Hey Blake.” Ruby says from across the room, having parted her curtain and placed her scroll under her pillow to dull the light, knowing that anything bright will likely agitate her headache. “How coherent are you this time?”

Blake simply looks up at her as if she has two heads. To her knowledge she’s only just woken up, having no memory of anything since puking on the floor of the classroom.

“Haven’t i been passed out since class?”

“Yeah, no, not quite. You’d wake up every now ‘n’ then and go a little nuts. Get better.” Ruby says before vanishing back behind the curtain with a yawn, falling down onto her pillow with an audible thump.

Blake pouts and shrugs to herself. Ruby ending a conversation abruptly isn’t uncommon, so she bundles herself up under her covers until Yang’s return, at which point a smile finally returns to her face. Her smile widens as she watches Yang slowly stumble through the darkness and bump into everything possible before finally handing her the water.

“You forget your light?” Blake asks, taking the offered water.

“Nah, i’m not stupid Blake. I forgot to charge my scroll so the battery died on the way back.”

“Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Sit with me for a bit?”

Blake gulps the water she was just given while budging over to give Yang room next to her sitting against the headboard, casually resting her head on Yang’s shoulder.

“Damn. You feel real sweaty there, Shadow.”

“You’re really settling on shadow, huh?”

“Eh. I dunno. It does suit you, though.”

Blake shrugs and gulps the rest of the bottle, throwing it onto the floor with nary a care once its empty with a small sound of surprise coming from her partner.

“I feel like absolute shit,” Blake starts, voice getting quieter as the pain in her head starts to return, “and apparently i’ve been going, and i quote, nuts?”

“A bit, yeah. We took you to the nurse-”

“The nurse? What for?”

“You vomited and passed out without warning, of course we got you to a nurse. But shut up, i’m telling a story.” she rests her head atop Blake’s, tentatively resting an arm around her, “They said you got the flu so they gave you a bunch of that liquid cold medicine, the non drowsy kind and watched you until it kicked in. You were hopped up on the stuff on the way back, just wouldn’t stop touching me.”

“Touching you…?”

“Yeah, constantly grabbing my arms and holding my hands. You squeezed my cheeks a few times too and called me cute. You passed out and would wake sorta periodically, every hour or so and take more cold medicine before getting up to a bit o’ mischief.”

“Mischief?”

“Okay, uh. Example; you have two of my hoodies on. You cried when i wouldn’t give ‘em to you so you used your semblance to steal ‘em.”

Blake sighs, squeezing Yang’s arm in an attempt at comfort. “I don’t remember any of it. I’m sorry if i was annoying.”

Blake begins to curl herself into a ball, faunus ears flattening against her skull as she fully expects anger against her, every instinct she’s honed after years in the white fang and with Adam telling her she’s in danger. The breath she had stuck in her throat releases when Yang instead does nothing but gently rub her shoulder.

“It’s fine, nobody’s mad. You’re just a bit of a handful when high on too much cold medicine.”

Blake smiles, grabbing and squeezing Yang’s hand briefly. Then her stomach starts to cramp and churn.

“Hey, Yang?”

“Hm?”

“I’m going to be sick.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake spends hours sick in bed, but enjoys the day anyway

It’s already day when Blake wakes back up, groggily patting the empty space next to her as if she’s missing something. She doesn’t really remember going to sleep, her last memory being having her head gently pet by her partner when she returned to bed after vomiting. The fog in her head doesn’t clear up as she lays in bed and looks around the room, instead getting thicker until it feels physically heavy enough to weigh her down. She wipes her runny nose on her pillow without thinking about it, next putting maximum effort into sitting up with her blanket wrapped tightly around her.

“Yang?” She says aloud despite the instinct in the back of her head that she’s been alone in the dormroom for a while. She can’t hear any shifting sounds from above her, Weiss is missing, and Ruby’s bed is made unusually tidy with her scroll missing.

She sighs. She doesn’t really want to be alone right now but she’s spent most of her life as such, so she gathers the strength she needs to stand without the assistance she was hoping for. The bed’s duvet remains wrapped around her shoulders not unlike a cake and she finds herself wearing little save for two bright yellow hoodies, one zip up and one not, quickly remembering being told of her theft from her partner. She’s not fully sure if she’s wearing underwear underneath the large baggy hoodie but she cares little considering her duvet cape and the fact that she’s alone. The dorm team RWBY moved into at the start of their second year has its own bathroom, adding to Blake’s decision to go for a shower once enough strength returns to her legs to walk properly. She finds the door locked however.

“Just a minute!” Ruby shouts from the other side of the door, having just finished her shower.

Blake sighs and walks to fall back on her bed face first, all the energy that she’d gathered melting away from her limbs the second she touches the bed, the very last used to roll herself into a blanket burrito.

“How’re you doin’, Blake?” A higher pitched voice says from the bathroom door, Ruby clearly having not bothered to get properly dry with her hair still soaking wet. Blake is very thankful that she’s fully dressed though, a comfortable and warm sweater but still wearing a skirt.

“Why don’t you just… wear pants? You’re clearly cold.”

“My skirts are cute, and plenty warm! An’ you’re avoiding my question.”

“I’m really… not great. I feel like i’m shutting down. I can barely think of anything except sleep.”

Ruby replies with a small, quiet grunt of agreement as she takes a seat on Weiss’ bunk. Now they have legitimate bunk beds, with just a few makeshift additions, she can afford to lean on one of the pillars without risk of everything collapsing. She thinks she looks cool.    
Blake looks over at her and does not think she looks cool, but finds it endearing.

“You, uh, need anythin’ before me and Weiss leave?”

“Well, i’m pretty hungry. Could you get me something plain to eat?”

Ruby nods and smiles, stretching her legs and popping her joints before heading to the door.

“Hold on,” Blake says, stopping Ruby in her tracks. “You aren’t in uniform but you and Weiss are leaving somewhere? What happened?”

“Oh! Our mission was initiated this mornin’, so we’ve been quietly rushing to get ready to go. Yang’s staying behind to look after you, so the… uh. I forgot the word,” Ruby pauses, pulling on her hair to try to pull the word back out her head. “Eh. The mission parameters are changin’ now there’s just two of us, but we’re still getting underway.”

“No. You have to tell Yang to go too.”

Ruby squeaks with a bit of surprise, worry plastering her face as all the possibilities of why she wouldn’t want to be together with Yang.

“Did you have a fight or something?”

“Huh?” Blake sighs, “No, of course not. I just don’t want her to sacrifice anything for me. She deserves to go on this mission too, and i don’t want to get her sick.”

“Ah, good, okay. I mean, she wants to stay with you. I think she’d enjoy spending two weeks alone with you once you’re better. Plus you’re really, really sick, you need at least a little help.”

Blake groans, quickly unwrapping herself from her duvet tube just to wrap herself back up with only her face looking out from underneath. She looks at Ruby, who’s looking at her with a little concern. She simply nods in response, groaning a little more as her headache reemerges. She moves to hide underneath the dark, warm duvet.

“I’ll get you some soup. A sandwich? I dunno, i’ll see what seems good when i get there.” Ruby says with a bit of pep in her voice, the sound of her semblance activating filling the room.

Blake lays back down on her back, cracking her knuckles to let out a little tension. She grabs the collar of the baggy hoodie she’s wearing and pulls it up to her nose for a quick, semi guilty smell. She can barely detect the signature scent of ash and smoke through her congested nose, but being able to imagine Yang next to her still brings her comfort. She decides to close her eyes for a few seconds in an attempt to dull her headache but she finds herself very quickly relaxing, or as close to relaxed as she can manage considering the only sensation her body is feeling can only be described as bad. It isn’t long before she ends up falling back to sleep, her body already exhausted after less than ten minutes awake.

 

She jolts awake later at the sound of the door closing, despite being able to tell that whoever closed it at least tried to close it gently. She can’t tell how long it’s been and barely feels as if she’s slept, feeling like she closed her eyes just a few seconds ago. Despite being face down in her pillow, she’s sure it’s still light.

“Ruby?” She asks, her last memory being her leader offering to get her something to eat.

“Wrong sister,” Yang replies in a soft whisper, “their ship left like an hour ago. ‘Fraid you’re stuck with me.”

Blake turns back over, laying on her side and watching Yang put her textbooks in their shared desks. She also notices a thermos and sandwich shaped object wrapped in tinfoil placed on her nightstand that definitely weren’t there when she passed out.

“Well at least you’re my favourite. You really didn’t want to go with them?”

“It just wouldn’t be the same without you. Our team isn’t a colour with you missing.”

Blake manages a chuckle for a few seconds before it throws her into a coughing fit, turning over to bury her face into her pillow until it subsides. She rubs her throat afterwards, her cold hand helping at least a little bit to soothe her.

“I don’t think it’s a colour with just Ruby and Weiss either.”

“Whatever.” Yang says with a cheeky smile on her face, grabbing the thermos next to the bed, “Just drink this before you cough up an organ, yeah?”

Blake nods, reaching out and taking the thermos from Yang’s hands. She holds it against her face to warm herself up.

“Let me know if you want anything, yeah?” Yang tells her as she jumps up onto her bunk. She pulls her scroll out her pocket to watch a movie, keeping the volume low and subtitles on in hopes of keeping Blake’s headache as painless as possible.

Blake spends a few seconds tempted to drink chicken soup straight from the thermos before pushing the impulse down to drink it from the cup in the lid. The warmth soothes her throat and serves to clear her head slightly, though it can only do so much to help her feel better. She next reaches for the sandwich, opening the foil that it’s wrapped in to find a slightly squashed tuna sandwich that’s been cut unevenly. Ruby definitely made this.

“Hey Blake, can i ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“So… You love tuna, you get distracted by laser pointers, you’re scared of Zwei. Do all faunus have so many traits?”

Blake has to stifle her laugh, sure that it would drive her back into a coughing fit. 

“No, i think i’m just like that. Kuo Kuana is a coastal city and the rest of Menagerie is rather hostile, so a lot of the food comes from the sea. I basically grew up on fish. Plus laser pointers are built to be distracting.”

“Huh. You’re gonna have to take me to Kuo Kuana one day.”

“Maybe, but I’m not sure you would do so well. It’s really hot and you’re a walking space heater, it may kill you.”

“I’d be with you, so it’d be worth it.”

Blake’s face burns red and she smiles while looking at the top bunk, despite Yang not being able to see her. It’s normal for Yang to be nice to her but it still makes her giddy. She hides herself back under her duvet and nibbles on her messily made sandwich, using the foil it was wrapped in as a plate to catch the crumbs. She decides to stay hidden for a while, resting and eating and keeping her body heat retained in her duvet cave.

 

A few hours later and Blake is curled into as tight a ball as she can in an attempt to stay warm, her uncontrollable shivering getting worse as the day goes on. The sound of rain against the window does nothing to help before an idea enters her head.

“Yang?” She says as she pulls herself back out from her blanket, though her voice comes out raspy as her throat gets worse.

“Sup?” 

“Can you jump down real quick? Bring your scroll.”

The very second that Yang does as she’s told Blake grabs her arm, pulling her onto the bed and into a tight bear hug. She buries her face into Yang’s shoulder, pushing her flat and attaching herself to the blonde’s side with her head on her chest.

“You could’ve just asked for a cuddle.” Yang says with a laugh, wrapping her arm around the girl on top of her. 

“You’re… warm. That’s all. You’re the space heater.”

“Of course. You wanna watch a movie or something?”

Blake nods, pressing herself tighter into Yang’s side as if there were even the smallest risk of her falling off the bed. She relaxes as Yang plays a low budget sci-fi movie, holding her scroll up for both of them to see.

The two girls settle quickly, wordlessly shifting and getting into different positions to keep each other comfortable. Yang gets into a small routine of refilling Blake’s soup when handed the empty cups, periodically running her hand through her hair. Blake occasionally gets up to go to the toilet, find some cold medicine or just stretch her legs after a day stuck in bed, but Yang opens up and keeps herself ready to give Blake an easy return. 

She keeps her scroll held in a position for them both to see when Blake overheats and separates later, though they stay next to each other in the same bed.

“Could you get me something to eat?” the faunus asks, subconsciously putting her hand on top Yang’s head, “We’re probably almost out of soup, and my stomach’s demanding something solid.”

“Definitely. Anythin’ in particular?”

“Something… meaty? I’m not really sure what i’m craving.”

Yang smiles at her, briefly grabbing and squeezing her hand before handing her the scroll and telling her to continue watching while she waits. She cracks her joints as she stands when she finds them a little stiff after a few hours in bed.

Blake smiles softly as she starts to leave, watching her walk away.

“Hey Yang?”

“Hm?” She turns around, looking at Blake from the doorway. 

“You know i… I mean- You…” She stammers, squeezing her eyes shut and pulling her hair in embarrassment. “Nevermind. Don’t worry.”

Yang looks at her suspiciously, but doesn’t press her to say whatever she was gonna say. She suspects that there’s something on her mind but decides to forget it, at least for now, while she recovers.

“I’ll be back soon.”

 

Blake leaves the bathroom at nearly 2am, keeping the light off both because she can see in the dark and to help her headache, which is thankfully almost clear after a lot of cold medicine and sleep. She takes a moment to look at the blonde girl sprawled out on her back in her bed, having fallen asleep while watching another movie together. She awkwardly climbs over her to be sure she doesn’t wake her up, falling straight back onto the bed with no finesse before wrapping back up in a cocoon within her duvet. She spends a few seconds with her eyes closed before turning back over, laying half her body atop Yang’s. She justifies it with the idea that Yang needs the duvet too.

“Yang?” She asks as quietly as she can, barely moving and sighing when she gets no response. “Yeah… So. I love you, quite a lot, like nobody else. And i’d never say any of this if you were awake.”

**Author's Note:**

> i accidentally wrote more than 100 words & accidentally planned more lol


End file.
